The Jets (and Giants) Get Soaked

Offense Futile As Cowboys Win in a Waltz

By MIKE FREEMAN

Published: September 9, 1996

IRVING, Tex., Sept. 8—
Early in the third quarter today, Giants quarterback Dave Brown tried his best to fire up an offense that had absolutely no life in it. He challenged the players to play better, telling the Giants they were still in the game. But at that point it was like bringing a cup of water to a three-alarm fire.

This was as bad an offensive performance as the Giants have had in years. It was truly mystifying to see the Giants net zero passing yards in the first half and just 38 yards total in today's 27-0 loss to Dallas.

At halftime, Brown had completed 4 of 9 passes for just 7 yards. He had minus-6 yards after throwing just one pass in the third quarter and finished the game 10 of 19 for 55 yards and 1 interception. After subtracting the 17 yards the Giants lost on sacks, the 38 yards they netted was the lowest total in recent history, and maybe ever. The only comparable performance Giants statisticians could find was a 39-yard game against Denver in 1992.

The main problem continues to be the Giants' dizzying pattern: first Brown and the offense self-destruct, then Coach Dan Reeves turns conservative. It goes this way: Brown or some other offensive player makes a mistake and Reeves gets tighter than a T-shirt on Hulk Hogan. He turns excessively to the running game and everyone including the hot dog vendor knows that the defenders just have to sit back and wait for Rodney Hampton or Tyrone Wheatley to come rushing into their loving arms.

So the Cowboys waltzed to victory before 63,069 at Texas Stadium today and made it clear that they are far from dead by righting their ship at 1-1. The Giants fell to 0-2 and are not ready to break out the lifeboats this early in the season, but they had better keep them within sight.

Many of the Giants took the blame for today's miserable performance, as they should have. ''Not much you can say when you get beat like that,'' said Reeves, who has beaten the Cowboys only once -- in a meaningless season-ending game in 1994 -- in three-plus seasons as the Giants' coach. ''They beat us in all phases of the game, and offensively we couldn't do anything.''

Reeves added that he was not going to blame anyone except himself and declared that the offense ''was not going to execute that poorly again, I promise you that.''

A sullen Brown said: ''I can only do so much. There are 11 guys out there. If you want to blame it on me, I'll take it, but this is called an offense. It's not just me out there.''

The Cowboys have now won 10 of the last 12 games between the teams.

Terrible signs were everywhere for the Giants:

*They were not able to cross midfield until only six minutes were left in the game -- and they were only able to do so then because of an offside penalty against Dallas.

*Emmitt Smith played with a sore neck and back and still gained 94 yards on 25 carries.

*Dallas converted just 3 of 11 third downs and still gained 368 yards of total offense.

*The Cowboys held onto the ball in the first quarter for 10 minutes 45 seconds to the Giants' 4 minutes 15 seconds.

What is most disturbing is that the Giants, especially on offense, make the same mistakes. How many times is a defender going to be allowed to run untouched on a blitz? Brown was sacked three times and was hurried often, either because of poor blocking schemes or poor execution of those schemes.

''I never want to blame our youth as a problem,'' Giants tackle Scott Gragg said. ''We need to take every rep as a learning process.''

The tone of the game seemed to be set on its first play, when Brown threw an interception that gave the Cowboys the ball on the Giants' 12-yard line. The Giants responded well to that first setback. New York made a brilliant goal-line stand that was completed on a nice fourth-and-1 stop by safety Maurice Douglass. From there, though, it was as if the Giants were roller skating down Mount Everest.

As the offense struggled and the defense became exhausted, the Cowboys scored on two great throws by Troy Aikman. The first was an 8-yard fade pattern to Deion Sanders, who beat Phillippi Sparks, one of the best cover men in the game. The second was a 19-yard pass to Kevin Williams, who beat safety Jason Sehorn. Both throws were perfect, but that is nothing new; Aikman is the third-most-accurate passer in league history and three of his top five games have been against the Giants. In 1990 he completed 21 of 26 passes against the Giants for 81 percent, in 1993 he was 24 of 30 for 80 percent and in 1994 he was 19 of 24 for 79 percent.

Dallas added a 5-yard pass to Smith for the 21-0 lead and in the second half added Chris Boniol field goals of 23 and 29 yards.

While it seems the defense was blasted, there were times when the unit shut down the Dallas offense. The Giants stopped the Cowboys on the first two series of the second quarter, but the offense could not take advantage. Some defensive players said it was then that they could feel the game turning.

In the end, the offense will take the brunt of the blame for this one. Brown said that as he was walking off the field, Aikman told him to hang in there and stay healthy and then wished him good luck. If things do not improve, the Giants will certainly need it.

EXTRA POINTS

The Giants were having problems with their headsets as DAN REEVES, who talks into a walkie-talkie, could not be heard by DAVE BROWN, who has a receiver in his helmet. The Giants got the plays to Brown using hand signals. . . . The Giants had two crucial interference calls, on PHILLIPPI SPARKS and THOMAS RANDOLPH, on the Cowboys' second drive. ''Every time we come here, the refs dog us,'' Randolph said. ''It's like the refs want to help them out or feel sorry for them, I don't know.''

Photos: Giants center Brian Williams, foreground, late in the fourth quarter of the Cowboys' 27-0 victory yesterday. (Mark Graham for The New York Times ) (pg. C1); Deion Sanders catching a pass for a touchdown in the first quarter yesterday to give the Dallas Cowboys a 6-0 lead over the Giants. (Associated Press) (pg. C5)